NATO scrambles warplanes during huge Russian attack on Ukraine

Polish police found a crater and scattered debris in a field left by an unidentified object that disappeared from army radars tracking it in domestic airspace during Russian strikes on Ukraine, authorities said on Thursday.

Poland scrambled fighter jets to secure its airspace after Russian air strikes killed at least 13 in neighbouring Ukraine, including one in Kyiv, the capital, in attacks that spread as far as the western city of Lviv.

‘An unidentified object moving westward was detected in Polish airspace,’ the operational command of the armed forces said on X, adding that it disappeared from radars soon after the sighting at 3.40am.

A Mi-24 helicopter that went to the object’s last location to verify and confirm the radar data pinpointed the likely crash site, it added.

‘A helicopter crew located the probable crash site of the object in an undeveloped area near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia in the Lublin province.’

The crater left was about 10 m (33 ft) wide, the interior ministry added on X.

Police in the Lublin region said they received a report of a loud bang in Biłgoraj county, between the villages of Tarnawa Kolonia and Biskupice.

First responders operate at a residential building partially destroyed as a result of Russian missile strikes in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on July 30, 2026, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine

Local residents react outside a residential building partially destroyed as a result of Russian missile strikes in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on July 30

First responders escort a wounded local resident (C) outside a residential building partially destroyed as a result of Russian missile strikes in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on July 30 

‘Officers discovered a crater and scattered debris from an unidentified object in a field located about 2 km (1.2 miles) from the nearest buildings, between the villages,’ the police added on X.

Sirens sounded in Lublin for a few minutes to warn against the Russian strikes, media said.

One person was killed and two more injured in the capital, emergency services said, with six more, including two children, killed in the regions ​of Dnipropetrovsk and Poltava.

In Zelensky’s hometown, the central city of Kryvyi Rih, two girls aged 5 and 12 were among ⁠six killed, with eight injured in what Oleksandr Vilkul, the city’s defence council head, said was a direct strike by a Russian Iskander-M ballistic missile.

‘A dark ​night,’ Vilkul said on Telegram, adding that the missile, launched from Russia’s Voronezh region, struck the home of a large family, and warned the death toll could ​increase as emergency workers clear away rubble. 

Earlier, Zelensky had warned a mᴀssive Russian attack was likely, saying the safety of Ukrainians depended on the willingness of allies to provide anti-missile defences.

‘It is important that our partners ​fully understand what is happening and that the protection of people’s lives depends directly on their willingness,’ Zelensky wrote on Telegram.

Russia’s defence ministry said on Thursday ​its forces struck what it called military facilities across Ukraine, in areas from the capital Kyiv to Lviv and Dnipropetrovsk, as well as three cargo ships. 

The attacks come as President Volodymyr Zelensky returns from the United States, where he said President Donald Trump agreed to give Ukraine licences for Patriot missiles. 

A man reacts near an apartment building hit by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Lviv, Ukraine July 30 

A woman reacts near an apartment building hit by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Lviv, Ukraine July 30

Smoke rises as firefighters work to extinguish a fire at Wildberries logistics hub following a Ukrainian drone attack in the Ryazan region of Russia on July 29

A warehouse of Russian top online retailer Wildberries caught fire in the western city of Penza after Ukraine’s drone attack, regional governor Oleg ​Melnichenko said on Telegram. 

One person was injured and ​about 200 people evacuated from the ⁠site, he added, just a day after the company, which has become a frequent target of Ukraine’s attacks, evacuated another facility in central Russia. 

Another of its facilities, in Sarapul in Russia’s Udmurtia region, also caught fire after a drone attack, the company ​said separately on Thursday. 

Its losses pile on the pain for ordinary Russians, some of whom have made online sales their main ​source of income, as ⁠Ukraine continues hitting energy facilities and refineries, deepening the fuel crisis in the world’s largest country by area. 

Drone strikes have damaged nearly a dozen Wildberries warehouses recently, destroying about 10 per cent of storage capacity and inflicting losses on tens of thousands of small businesses using the platform, the company and local authorities say. 

Russia’s biggest bank, Sberbank, has warned it may ⁠have to ​boost loan-loss provisions as attacks on Wildberries hit the finances of online retailers and their suppliers. 

Russia ​downed a total of 258 drones overnight, its defence ministry said. 

That figure covers Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine. 

Both Russia and Ukraine deny targeting civilians in the war ​following Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022.